Shilo Sanders and his attorneys have fought two separate court battles in recent months, both with high stakes for the University of Colorado football star:
∎ In Colorado bankruptcy court, they are trying to free him from the $11 million debt he owes for allegedly assaulting and injuring a man when he was 15 in Dallas in 2015.
∎ In Texas state court, they are also seeking to have many old documents related to his youth hidden from public view, despite the fact that those documents could be relevant to his public bankruptcy case now that he is an adult, at age 24.
“There is no basis or justification under Texas state law or under the Bankruptcy Code or Bankruptcy Rules to unseal such documents relating to Sanders’ time as a minor simply because Sanders has reached the age of majority,” Sanders’ attorneys wrote in a court filing in June.
His lawyers have even requested a hearing in Dallas next week to explain why the court should seal hundreds of pages of court records relating to his time as a juvenile.
In a broader sense, the case highlights the bizarre circumstances that led Sanders, the son of Colorado coach Deion Sanders, to file for bankruptcy as a young adult over what he allegedly did as a ninth-grader at a Dallas high school. Legal experts describe the situation as an oddity in a justice system that is generally designed not to let youthful mistakes ruin a person’s life.
But in this case, the law allowed a then-40-year-old man to sue a then-16-year-old boy (Sanders) in civil court in 2016 over what Sanders allegedly did to the man a year earlier, when he was 15.
The law also allowed the same civil court to hold Sanders liable for what he allegedly did when he was 15 — issuing an $11.89 million default judgment against him that forced him into bankruptcy last year at age 23.
Here’s why and what sets this case apart.
Why did the case reach this stage if Shilo Sanders was a minor?
The case stems from a September 2015 incident in which Shilo Sanders allegedly assaulted and permanently injured a security guard, John Darjean, who tried to confiscate his phone at school. Darjean sued Sanders and his parents in 2016, seeking damages for his injuries. But Sanders’ parents were eventually dismissed from the case. Shilo was not. By the time he entered his junior year of college in South Carolina in 2019, he was the only remaining defendant in the case at age 19.
Then, when the case finally went to trial in Dallas in 2022, Shilo did not show up to defend himself in court after dismissing his attorneys in the case in 2020.
As a result, the court entered a default judgment against him in the amount of $11.89 million – a debt Darjean is still trying to collect from him.
Darjean says Shilo simply owes him what he did to her, under laws designed to deal with civil wrongs — or misdemeanors — in civil courts. It has nothing to do with criminal courts, where children typically enjoy more privacy and leniency than adults.
“Minors are liable in tort just like adults,” said Meredith Duncan, a law professor at the University of Houston. “That’s the case in most states. The plaintiff in this case (Darjean) is suing Shilo for committing a tort (a civil wrong) and is seeking to hold him civilly liable (for monetary damages). Unlike in the criminal justice system, on the civil side, being a minor at the time of a crime doesn’t shield you from liability. The practical difficulty in prosecuting a minor in tort is that most minors don’t have money.”
The default judgment led Shilo Sanders to file for bankruptcy last October. His goal in bankruptcy court is to have the debt discharged so he can “make a fresh start, free from the oppressive burden of his debts,” according to his lawyers.
Sanders claimed that Darjean was the attacker, not him, although it may be too late to press charges after missing the trial on the matter.
How money makes this business special
Deion Sanders has previously described the case as an attempt by Darjean to embezzle money. However, Darjean disputes any suggestion that he is suing Shilo Sanders simply because of the wealth of Deion Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Darjean noted that multiple investigations have weighed the evidence in the case and ended up finding in his favor, including by police, workers’ compensation authorities and the Dallas Civil Court.
Court records filed by Darjean’s attorneys also indicate that Sanders was admitted to a Dallas County juvenile hall a day later after another incident at the school.
“I would go after anybody who attacked me,” Darjean told USA TODAY Sports in a recent interview. “I don’t care who it was.”
It might have been harder for him to find lawyers to defend his rights in this case if Sanders didn’t come from a wealthy family. Darjean said his lawyers are working on the case on a contingency fee basis, which typically means they receive a portion of any settlement or debt collection.
These lawyers are opposing Shilo’s efforts to get rid of his debt in bankruptcy court because they want to collect it. If the debt is not collected by the bankruptcy court, they could continue to pursue debt collection efforts against him in the future, including future NFL winnings.
This is one reason why this case is rare. It is often not worth pursuing minors in civil proceedings because they often cannot afford to pay the resulting judgment.
“This case is unique in many ways, not least because the defendant’s family has significantly greater resources than the average person,” said Jonathan Todres, a Georgia State University law professor and children’s rights expert.
In the meantime, Darjean said he won’t stop fighting until he gets what he’s owed. His lawyers also suggested in court documents that Shilo was hiding assets to avoid selling them to pay off his debt — allegations Shilo’s lawyers deny. Lawyers involved in the case declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
What happened to Shilo Sanders so far?
Shilo Sanders is a graduate student from Colorado and was the team’s leading tackler in 2023. But he enters his final college season in Boulder with legal and financial issues rare for college football players.
In March, he underwent a property inspection to account for his assets, according to court documents filed in the case. He provided the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the case with bank statements, information about his business activities and documents related to his vehicles.
“The trustee continues to review the documents to determine whether additional documents are necessary for the trustee’s administration of the estate,” his attorney said in a court filing filed June 27.
His non-exempt assets could be sold to repay creditors at least some of what he owes them, but his biggest creditor – Darjean – suspects he is hiding assets and wants to prevent the court judgment from being overturned on the grounds that it resulted from “intentional and malicious” harm.
To represent his interests, Shilo Sanders has lawyers working for him in Colorado, Washington DC and Texas, where they are asking the court to seal records relating to his youth.
Why Wasn’t Shilo Sanders Protected From Trial As A Minor?
This stems from the differences between civil courts and the criminal justice system, where children are treated differently as juveniles.
“The idea behind this was that children are different from adults and deserve the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and be supported in their development, rather than being penalized indefinitely for their missteps,” Georgia State’s Todres said.
In civil court, on the other hand, a child’s liberty is not at stake as it may be in the criminal justice system. The issue is essentially determining liability in order to obtain damages. Darjean says the age of his alleged attacker should not matter if he suffered serious injuries and has proven in court who was responsible.
He sought compensation for those injuries, and the court found that Sanders “did indeed cause physical harm and injury to John Darjean by assaulting him,” according to “findings of fact” signed by the judge in 2022.
The court judgment against Sanders included $3 million for Darjean’s future physical disabilities and $2 million for future medical care. Sanders’ attorneys said in court filings that the man doesn’t have the money to pay the judgment and should be released. It will soon be up to the court to decide whether he should remain liable in the case.
In general, the civil legal system as a whole, beyond this case, has to “strike a difficult balance,” Todres said. “We want to make sure that injured people get compensation, where they’re entitled to it, so they can fully recover, but we don’t want to unduly penalize a child and impose a lifelong debt on them because of a decision they made when they were a child. Part of the challenge is that the primary remedy in our legal system for injuries is monetary compensation.”
Follow journalist Brent Schrotenboer @SchrotenboerEmail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com